Russian Fairy Tale

The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda

This fairy tale supports the working class of Russia, that the labor folk are important. This cheap priest goes into town looking for cheap labor where he finds Balda. Balda means stupid or simple. Balda said he could work for the priest as long as he gets to hit the priest 3 times on the head if he completes his jobs. Of course the cheap priest agrees thinking he Balda could not do all his task perfectly, the priest was mistaken.
Worried the priest assigns a task of collecting debt from a demon, to the priest surprise Balda accomplishes this. The priest upholds his deal and allows Balda to hit him on his forehead. The priest is hit so hard that he looses his sanity. " You shouldn't have gone rushing after cheapness." This lesson is to teach values of work and ethics. Also find it interesting to see Buddhist elements with demons and demon's family. Buddhism was popular or on the rise in the East, especially in Mongolia. I wonder where the influence came from and how popular these Buddhist elements are in Russia during the creation of this Tale.